After graduating from High School I had a lot of time to kill....
I was into riding and into racing, and occasionally would be up for catching some air...it was this photo that launched Skyler Reeves modeling career!
In 1995 I had finished 2nd at the Norba National Jr Expert race in Traverse City, MI. If I could manage top 5 in Helen GA two weeks later I would be on my way to Germany for Junior World Championships....I finished 30th or something in one of the muddiest races in history.
Back to 1996...I finished 4th in Helen Georgia....2 months later if I could finish top 5 in Traverse City I would be on my way to Australia for the '96 World's...time to start Traverse City prep....
One of the coolest courses ever....tons of fast flowing singletrack, long climbs, fast descents, and the water jump!
To this day I think I am one of only 3 people in the history of the universe to clear the water jump nude!
Anyway I had a ton of time on my hands after graduating so pretty much every weekend between Helen and Traverse City a group of us made the 4 hour drive "Up North" from Pinckney to Traverse almost every weekend.
Then this happened
Photo was a few days after the fact so I had healed a little, but here is the story...
Weekend before Nationals following local legend Derek 'Tinker' Prechtl on one of the many high speed singletrack sections. Puttin' the hammer down, breathing hard, pounding heart rate, getting dropped, stand for a slight climb, look up to see how bad I'm getting dropped and WHAM!!!
Low branch across the trail straight across the face....like Hulk Hogan clotheslining Rowdy Roddy Piper in Wrestlemania 2....I was down and blacked out. I didn't even see it just down. When I came to senses there was blood dripping down my face, I was laying on my back looking up at a lot of trees. Nobody was around and I was in pain. Tinker had dropped me and kept going...my Briko sunglasses had smashed...I was still hurting and bummed about the shades.
Eventually my buddies came back to find me....we rode to the club house of the Shanty Creek golf course, went to the bathroom and started the clean-up process. My buddies were laughing hysterically at me....I was still in pain, they thought it would be a great idea to clean the cuts with rubbing alcohol and toilet paper.....Now I was in even more pain, almost crying/ moaning in pain and a group of uptight golfers walks in on us the the bathroom and gave me the look like, "Wow your buddies just kicked your ass and now they are laughing at you" Then they left and I'm sure they thought my buddies were going to continue kicking the crap out of the queer in spadex. All in all it was pretty darn funny 10 years later.
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To end the story I was really nervous for the race...got wasted...but was able to go to Australia due to other good results from the remainder of the 96 season. Australia was sweet except for a bad case of food poisoning half of the junior racers caught. I remember hurling at 2:00am being on the other side of the planet sleep schedule all messed up, but that morning I saw one of the best sunrises ever over the Pacific.
5 comments:
You could actually do a jump?
Tomac
Wow, that's a really great history, imagine if Tristan did cool stuff too.
Is it true that the water drains counter-clockwise when you flush the toilet?
Hey B-money, it's that time of year again. Shoot me an e-mail and we'll talk biz.
creepy_friendly@yahoo.com
After hours of debate at countless Norba Nationals an experiment was performed....water drains both clockwise and counterclockwise on either side of the equator. Test it yourself....the majority of the time it holds true, but occasionally you will see water drain counter clockwise in the USA
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